Happy 100th Post!

I am happy to report that this is post number 100 on Pop Culture Book Review. I started this blog back in August of 2006 and I know that I don't update it nearly enough, but I love writing reviews and getting feedback from my readers. Thank you all so much for contributing to my longevity. For my super exciting 100th post, I'm going to discuss lots of stuff that I've come across in the last few weeks:

I read the very cute gay epistolary novel Almost Like Being In Love by Steve Kluger. This book was so much fun because it references lots of musicals while telling a love story in an exciting style that made it fun to read.

Urban Dictionary just released their second volume entitled Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined which is just as exciting as the first volume. It's both handy and funny - what more could you want? An aside: ridonkulous makes me think of the episode of How I Met Your Mother when Marshall goes to brunch with his law school friend Brad who describes the zucchini bread as ridonkulous. He he he. Also of note in How I Met Your Mother related news, the red-band R rated trailer was released yesterday for Jason Segel's movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall that comes out in April of this year and it's pretty funny.

Finally, I am super excited to get Seth Rudetsky's new roman a clef titled Broadway Nights: A Romp of Life, Love & Musical Theatre. I will let you guys know how it is once it finally arrives on hold for me. If you are a Broadway fan, I suggest watching Seth's videos since he is hi-larious. I especially love his rant about Barbara Walters and her musical stylings it made me laugh out loud.

So there you have it - hopefully you found something you liked and thanks again for helping me get to post #100. Here's to the next 100.

A Few Things

So I took last week off in order to properly celebrate Thanksgiving. I hadn't read anything good anyway and it was best to not bore you with a lackluster book review. Plus, I had to participate in the best family Thanksgiving tradition ever: tequila shots.

I'm going to mention a few things today. First off, I've started watching a new program that's being broadcast online in a few different places called quarterlife. It's by Marshall Herskovitz who produced one of the best shows ever, My So-Called Life. So far I've only watched 3 parts of the first episode but I'm hooked. It's about a magazine editor who really wants to be a writer and her video blog that exposes the secret desires of all of her friends. It's kind of trashy, but that's what makes it good. Plus, with the producers still stupidly holding their ground and the writers still (rightfully) striking, I miss television.

This past weekend I read the latest PostSecret book, A Lifetime of Secrets. It was basically the same as the last two books, some of the secrets I had seen before and some were new. The overall tone of the book was depressing; in fact, some of the secrets were almost unbearable. It's easier to take the blog that only posts 10 secrets once a week. A whole book of them was just too much.

A few weeks ago someone nicely commented on my review of Madlands by J. Allen Kirsch and mentioned that there was a sequel. I was not aware of this so I requested God's Little Isthmus immediately. Unfortunately, when I sat down to read it I was fairly disappointed. Everyone was so Madison: liberal, environmentally conscious and a do-gooder to the extreme. Now I like to think that I am all of those things, but in moderation. I'm not going to stop drinking a beer that I like just because it happens to be owned by the same company as another product that is doing something borderline bad. Maybe it was just my mood, but this sequel rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps I'll try it again some time, but right now, it's not for me.

TV Show: How I Met Your Mother

Ok people, I'm busy. I'm in a wedding this weekend and I've got lots of papers to write this week for school. I don't have time to review a book so you're getting a quick TV show review (and you're gonna like it). I got into the CBS half-hour sitcom How I Met Your Mother last year and was able to catch up on past episodes. The third season just began Monday nights on CBS. It's good, it's witty and funny and Neil Patrick Harris is awesome. He's great as the ladies man and class clown Barney, plus NPH has had some excellent roles on Broadway, not to mention the best cameo in a movie ever. I love the relationship between Lily and Marshall, college sweethearts who tied the knot at the end of last season. Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan have great chemistry and make the couple seem very real and lots of fun. So yeah, you should all watch the show, you'd like it. I'll be back next week with a book review once the craziness subsides. Take it easy...and suit up!